Wild Card
by Beastbot X
Summary: Gambit's had something of his stolen, but why, and by whom? It's time for Rogue and him to find out. Twenty-seventh in my X-Men Evolution series.


"Wild Card"

by Beastbot

"Hey there, cherie. Pull up a seat."

"Remy, it's late," Rogue said quickly, plopping herself down on the seat across the table from Gambit. "I came all the way out here, against my better judgement, for a reason. Now please tell me what that reason _is_."

"Heh, 'Remy' now, is it?" Gambit smiled, cleaning up the game of solitaire he had been playing on the circular plastic table in the corner of the restaurant as a waitress came over with their food. "Oysters are for me, jamalaya's for her, thanks… So, you and me are on a first name basis, now? 'Cause if so, I'd _love_ to know yours."

"What the-?" Rogue said as the waitress placed a bowl of jambalaya in front of her. "Gambit, you ordered me food?"

"Will that be all?" the waitress interjected.

"Yes, we're fine for right now, thanks," Gambit nodded before turning back to Rogue as the waitress left them both. "What, you're not hungry?"

"Gambit. _It's one o' clock in the morning_," Rogue replied, flabbergasted. "No I am not hungry, and if I _was_, it would be for chips or something, not a… bad Cajun dinner. Now, tell me why I'm here."

"Well, consider it on me anyways, as thanks for coming. You can box it up, if you want, save it for later. Though I agree, this place ain't exactly 'real' Cajun. But hey, up here in New York it's about as close as we can get, especially at this time 'a night, right?"

"Alright, last chance," Rogue said, taking one of her gloves off. "Tell me why I'm here in a restaurant waaay on the other side of Bayville at one o' clock at night or I'll just take the answers from you."

"Woah, woah, woah, point made, cherie," Gambit said, putting his hands up defensively. "Alright, straight to business, I got it. Just thought I'd make you comfortable first, it's a bit of a story."

"Well, then tell it."

"Okay. Well, I'm not sure exactly when it started, as I didn't get a chance to check the time until after the fact, y' understand. But I'm guessing it was about, oh… five hours ago or so…."

* * *

_"Did I do thaaaaat?"_

*click*

_"—earned five thousand dollars a day, and from just working at home!"_

*click*

_"She's dead, Jim."_

*click*

_"—verdict earlier today for Jamie Madrox, which was, to many people's surprise, Not Guilty. According to a recent poll among New York residents, roughly eighty-five percent thought the Xavier Institute student was guilty just two days ago, but the disruption of the proceedings—"_

*click*

"_Oh my god, I couldn't believe she would dump me for—"_

*click*

* * *

"Hold on, you were channel surfing and you skipped the news? On today—well, technically yesterday, now—_of all days_?" Rogue said in between bites of her jambalaya.

"Hey look, if you're gonna start interrupting me now, it's gonna be a long night still," Gambit said, cracking open his second oyster. "But yeah, I skipped it. Figured I'd hear about it via more direct 'n dependable means, later, from you all. He was cleared of all charges from the bit I heard, so that about sated my curiosity. The point was, there was nothing on television."

"Okay, well you could've just said that. Now, get to the _real_ point of the story."

"I was actually just about there, before you interrupted me."

* * *

Gambit sighed as he turned the television off with the other end of his staff.

"Wow, there is really _nothing_ on television," he murmured to himself.

Standing up slowly, Gambit tossed the empty can of beer he had been holding into a nearby trash can and made the way to the bedroom of his apartment.

_Nothing on TV, kinda bored of solitaire….guess I'll get in some reading…_

Rummaging through his shelf of old books, Remy finally found one he hadn't touched in a while when he heard a slight thump.

Immediately stopping what he was doing, he stood absolutely still, listening again closely.

_Thump._

Yep, there it was again—and coming from the entryway to his apartment.

Quickly, quietly, Remy put the book down, grabbed his staff, and threw on his trenchcoat as he tip-toed to the front door.

When he was almost there, he heard it again, louder this time.

_THUMP-eerrraccckkk…_

Remy stepped back suddenly as a sword punctured his front door, splitting the wood near the center.

A few moments later the sword jerked once, then twice, then once more—and then there was a muffled cursing on the other side of the door.

Slowly and silently, Remy made his way to one side of the entryway. As he heard the person on the other side—a male, from the sounds of it—mumble something about his sword being stuck, Gambit very slowly turned the lock so that the door was open.

Charging up one of his cards, in the blink of an eye, Remy then flung the door open, ready to fling his explosive at whoever was on the other side—if not for the reaction that the person on the other side of the door had.

That was, none at all.  
The costumed man just stood there, blinking for a second. Remy had never seen him before—he was in a mostly red uniform, with a mask pulled over his head that had large, black ovals around the eyeholes. In addition to one other sword sheathed on his back, the figure had at least two guns holstered in his belt.

"Wow, that was quick," the man said quickly. "So I'm curious, was it the sound of my sword slicing through your door or the smell of my 'pits that caught your attention? 'Cause it's been a while since I managed to hit up a convenience store for some deodorant."

"This is your last and only chance. Tell me who you are and what the heck it is you want right now, or you're getting a card—and a pole- in the face," Remy threatened, triggering the button on his staff that made it slide out to its full height.

"Name's Deadpool. As for what I want... right now, pie."

"Wrong answer," Gambit sneered, flinging a card right into Deadpool's face.

"OW!" Deadpool cried, clutching his singed face. "Not cool! Why the censored did you do that, man?"

"Get out. Now," Gambit said, clutching his staff with both hands.

"Ugh, fine," Deadpool grumbled, lowering his hands. "Though one thing you probably should know before I go—I'm the distraction."

Gambit cursed. Quickly stabbing at Deadpool with his staff—which Deadpool managed to quickly dodge—Gambit turned around, sprinting back into the living room of his apartment. There he found a white-skinned woman with a black tattoo over one eye, his laptop underneath one of her arms, just getting ready to sneak back out the lone window she had opened.

"Thanks a lot, WADE!" Domino huffed, quickly pulling out a gun and firing it at Gambit, who just managed to reflexively bring up his staff in time, reflecting the bullet off it—and, unfortunately, right into his television monitor.

"You're good, I'll give you that," Domino smiled as she saw Gambit reach into his pockets. "But we're better."

Gambit flung a couple of cards after her, but by the time they reached her the rather agile mercenary had already jumped out of the window.

Gambit began to run after her, only to be tripped by Deadpool, who slid into his field of vision at the last second.

"You've been hit by," Deadpool began to sing as Gambit hit the floor.

Thumping Gambit hard in the back of the head with the butt of his remaining sword, Deadpool continued, "You've been struck by- _a smooth criminal_."

Gambit clutched the back of his head, his teeth clenched together as he gazed up to see Deadpool hightailing it to the window, striking a Michael Jackson-esque pose and finishing, "OW!" before diving out into the night behind Domino.

* * *

"Wow, that took some guts," Rogue said.

"Yeah," Gambit frowned. "Stealing from a professional thief…"

"No, I mean actually admitting that you got your butt whipped," Rogue laughed. "I mean, when have I ever seen you taken by surprise? Really?"

"Oh yes, quite funny," Gambit said, putting on a fake grin for a second before looking away, his frown returning.

"Hey, look, I was just messin' with ya," Rogue said, giving Gambit a light-hearted shove from across the table. "Like I haven't been taken by surprise way more than my fair share…"

"Hey, I was outnumbered," Gambit replied, "And both of them were very agile—they knew what they were doing."

"No, I get it," Rogue said. "We've actually had two run-ins with that duo, if you can believe it. Deadpool is definitely off-putting, but they're both pretty good at what they do."

"You know them both?" Gambit said, looking up.

"Well, not personally," Rogue replied. "But they actually helped us find where Jamie was during that whole 'invasion' thing a while back, if you can believe it. The female one's named Domino. They were involved with H.Y.D.R.A. at one point, but now they're apparently freelance mercenaries."

"So what were they doing in my apartment?" Gambit asked.

"Hey, ya got me," Rogue shrugged. "What's on your laptop?"

"A lot of things…" Gambit said. "Any number 'a which they could've been after, depending on who hired 'em."

"So I'm guessing you need my help in tracking 'em down and putting the hurt on 'em?" Rogue asked. "I imagine I could convince the Prof to look for 'em on Cerebro, provided you're willing to wait 'till morning…"

Gambit smirked. "You already think I'm done with my story. Cute."

"You mean you went _after_ them after they beat you so badly?"

"Hey, Deadpool's blow to the head might've stunned me for a second, but it definitely didn't knock me out," Gambit said. "Besides, they weren't stealin' from a thief _that_ easily. Naw, I went after them, but not immediately. Given that they were professionals, they were probably on the lookout for that. I waited a minute or so, made sure they let their guard down, at least a little. They I wrenched the sword Deadpool had left out of my front door and climbed onto the roof…"

* * *

Gambit took out of his pocket a pair of nightvision goggles, putting them up to his eyes and training them on the alleyway behind his downtown apartment.

"Definitely would've been too obvious if they escaped via the street," Gambit mumbled to himself, "So where _are_ they?"

He quietly crept around the edges of the roof of the apartment building, looking for any signs indicating the direction they had gone.

And then he heard it—at the end of the block, the sound of a car starting up, but no sudden increase of light coming from that direction that would indicate headlights had come on.

_Yup, definitely them._

Gambit high-tailed it across the rooftops, using his staff to vault over the gaps between the buildings. He made it the corner building within half a minute, and saw an old beat-up car zooming off into the distance, the headlights still off.

"Come on, don't be too late, don't be too late…" Gambit murmured to himself as he magnified his nightvision goggles on the license plate of the retreating car.

"Okay, let's see here… GL1-A59… or AS9," Gambit sighed, taking off the goggles. "Well… ain't no catching up with 'em now."

* * *

"So you need my help tracking down the license plate number," Rogue asked.

"What? Cherie, you continue to underestimate my skills," Gambit said, smirking.

"But it's only been a few hours, there's no way…" Rogue started, before trailing off. "Wait a minute, you _broke into the Bayville DMV_?"

"'A course," Gambit replied. "Soon after I moved here, I had a wax copy of the key to their back door made, and paid off a hacker I know for the password to their computer database."

"And I'm assuming I don't want to know where or how you found the person that was willing to make the key copy, or whoever managed to hack into the DMV's database."

"Now you're starting to get up to speed," Gambit winked. "But anyway, I snuck in, switched the cameras to play an infinite loop of nothing, then used my, ahem… _contact's_… info to log into the database. Turned out that the license plate was registered to a car whose owners were at 389 Corrigston Avenue, in the suburbs on the west side of town. So I decided to pay the place a little visit."

* * *

"Hrrm," Gambit murmured to himself, lowering his nightvision goggles and sliding quietly off the roof of the house across the street from the 389 Corrigston Avenue.

It had been easy enough to find out the address, but the surprise was that the house was vacant, and all the lights were off. There was a "FOR SALE" sign in the overgrown front yard—and from the general look of the house, it had been in the market for some time.

If it wasn't for the fact that a familiar car was parked in the driveway out front, he might've thought the car in question was stolen and gone an entirely different route.

Of course, Gambit reasoned to himself, if the car _had_ been stolen and this had been a dead end, he probably would've given up and taken his losses right there. Going to such lengths merely to get his laptop would have meant that a very large criminal operation was going on here, and to stay away from it, lest he either get killed or—perhaps worse—draw attention from the authorities. The last thing he needed was the police paying too much attention to him.

One of the most important things about being a professional thief, he had learned, was figuring out when to leave well enough alone.

But using this—well, the two who had broken into his house certainly did well enough trying to cover their tracks. But they hadn't gone above and beyond the call of duty, which meant that whomever these people were, they had been paid a comparatively modest sum of money. Enough to get the job done, but not enough to completely cover their tracks from every angle imaginable—which meant that the whole operation was likely relatively small in nature.

Still, if they knew enough about him to know that his laptop was worth stealing, then they probably already knew a lot about him anyways.

Including the fact that he'd have the means to track them down here.

Although they might not be outright expecting him, Gambit thought, they could have set up temporary measures in case he DID track him down.

_Which means I'd better be careful._

Gambit nonchalantly pocketed his goggles, quietly made his way through the backyards of the next few houses, and then finally made his way out across the street—far enough down the road where no one looking out from any of the windows at 389 Corrigston Avenue could have seen him, and at the farthest point in between street lights.

Taking out his staff, Gambit quickly vaulted himself into the backyard of the house that now stood in front of him, then made his way back over towards 389. Once he had reached the backyard next to the dilapidated house, he quietly climbed up the fence in between the two homes.

_Alright. Showtime._

Equipping his goggles again, Gambit shoved himself onto the rundown house's roof. Looking across the yard, he saw a few proximity mines planted around the area.

_Please. Amateurs_.

From this position, he could see a rear basement light on. For a brief minute he considered that it could have been a distraction, with the actual mercs being elsewhere around the house, but with the help of his goggles he could make out slight variations in the light—like someone moving in between the light source and the window.

_They're definitely in there, so that's my destination—but best avoid the rest of the house. They've likely booby-trapped some of the doors and windows just like the yard…_

Which meant that he'd have to get in through the tiny basement window. The one that had a few proximity mines surprisingly close to it.

_Ouch. Okay, so maybe they're not quite as amateurish as I thought…_

Gambit sat there for a few minutes, puzzling his way through the predicament, playing out various pathways to the basement in his mind.

If they had placed sensors along the doors or windows—and he was almost certain they would have—then all of his pathways ended in disaster.

Unless, of course—he forced _them_ to take those pathways _first_.

Gambit smiled. Even for a thief, sometimes the correct path _was_ the most direct one.

Taking a card out of his pocket, he threw it at one of the mines nearest to the house's back door.

A small explosion ripped through the immediate area, shattering the nearby windows. Immediately he heard yelling coming from the basement.

_Good. Now they'll be split up, with one of them checking to see what's gone on, while the other stays in the basement, likely to protect my laptop…_

He waited as other lights in the house came on, then readied another card as the lock to the back door clicked, and the door itself opened. Out stepped the white-skinned woman he had caught a brief glimpse of earlier.

Domino stood there for a few moments, unholstering her guns, her eyes darting everywhere around the backyard. After a few moments, she called into her wrist communicator, "No one's here, Wade. Must've been a raccoon or something."

Gambit leaned forward, charging up his card and getting ready to throw it—until he felt a blade press up against his throat.

Deadpool smiled from his position right behind Gambit, then spoke in a few raccoon chitters and shrieks.

Gambit grimaced—and then, quick as lightning, took the other one of Deadpool's swords that he had been hiding under his trenchcoat—the sharp end already pointing towards his back—and stabbed it through his coat and into Deadpool's chest.

Deadpool suddenly coughed, dropping the sword from Gambit's throat as he clutched the other one now poking through his abdomen.

"Sorry, but I stopped learning new languages after two," Gambit whispered, using the sword through Deadpool's gut as a lever and forcing the mercenary in a quick circle around him, tearing his trenchcloak free in the process and placing Deadpool right between and Domino, who was still below them both in the yard—and a split second after he had done so, he heard a gun blast ring out, and Deadpool's eyes go wide as the bullet struck the mercenary in the back.

"Son of a… _Dom_!" Deadpool howled in pain. "Look before you shoot!"

"I thought you _had_ him!" Domino spat.

"Alright, so now we're in a new standoff," Gambit said. "Now, 'Dom', lower your weapon and give me back what you stole and I'll let Deadpool here go. Maybe you can get him to an ER in time to patch him up."

Though he was obviously in massive pain, Deadpool still managed to smirk. "You don't have a clue, do ya, buddy boy? Let me have it, Domino."

"Oh, so now you WANT me to hit you… Fine," Domino smiled, then began firing wildly—_at_ Deadpool.

"What the?" Gambit said, letting go of the sword thrust in Deadpool's stomach and quickly bringing his staff up in front of his face to deflect a few peripheral bullets as he stumbled awkwardly backwards, going up the roof a few steps before falling backwards through a window into the house's attic.

Gambit braced himself as he fell several feet, hitting the attic "floor"—it was more insulation with a few boards across it than an actual wooden floor—and punching through, falling down into one of the home's second story rooms before finally coming to a stop, hitting the hardwood floor beneath him, his nightvision goggles wrenching themselves free from his head upon impact

Gambit lay there for a second or two, then shook the glass and dust from his head, getting up. He was a bit bruised and the glass fragments from the window had made a few shallow cuts, but otherwise he was fine—the insulation had helped soften the blow a bit.

No sooner had he stood up, however, than the window in the empty room shattered, a bullet piercing it. Domino must have already determined where he was inside the house from the sound…

Gambit took a step forward and reflexively yelped as one grazed his hip, then quickly yanked the door open and scrambled into the hallway his sudden reaction at the sound of the window shattering, he had noted, had kept the bullet from full-on embedding itself in his pelvis.

_That woman can _shoot…

Luckily, due to the soft glow that was emanating from the lights on downstairs he didn't need his goggles anymore—but he knew he needed to get to the basement, fast, before they reached his laptop first.

Making no attempt at stealth anymore, Gambit ran down the hallway, down the stairs, onto the ground floor, and then quickly began searching for stairs down to the basement. He was just about to use his staff to bust open a door when he remembered his earlier caution to avoid any booby traps. Looking closely, he indeed saw that there was a small trip wire attached to the door knob.

He cursed as he realized his situation- he needed to get downstairs fast, but couldn't do so because of the time needed to disable this and any other booby traps.

He cursed louder when he heard a door behind him get yanked open, and he turned around. Both Domino and Deadpool had now entered the same room. Domino trained her guns on him, while Deadpool held both of his swords in his hands.

"Looks like _someone_ didn't read my Marvel wiki entry," Deadpool smirked. "Specifically the part about my healing factor."

"You move, you get a bullet through the head," Domino said.

"What do you want with my laptop?" Gambit said, slowly raising one of his hands in the air, the other still behind his back.

"No funny business, no stalling," Domino said. "BOTH hands, in the air. Now."

"Alright, fine, fine," Gambit said, slowly raising his other hand as well. "Now, you gonna answer my question?"

"_We_ don't want anything," Domino answered. "Our client does."

"And what does your client want with it?" Gambit smirked.

"I really don't think you're in a position to be making demands," Domino said smugly.

"Alright, I gave you a chance," Gambit said, shrugging—as he fell backwards against the door. The door easily gave way behind him, he having turned the knob all the way and pushed the door forward just enough to keep it from closing shut again before he had put his second hand in the air.

Gambit felt the two bullets from Domino's guns graze his hair as he fell into a controlled roll down the basement stairwell. The tripwire activated, and a couple of quick swishes sounded from above his head as a some crossbow- bolts were automatically fired through the space he had been a second ago.

Deadpool managed to dodge the two aimed at him just in time, but Domino took them both in the arm.

Rolling backwards down the basement, Gambit came to a stop at the bottom. Planting both of his feet on solid ground again, he smirked as he heard Domino cry out briefly in pain.

_Hopefully she doesn't have ol' Logan's healing factor, too…_

Gambit noticed the light coming from behind him, and, quickly making a mental map, suspected he was in the lit part of the house he had noticed from outside. Turning around, he saw it—his laptop—on a table in the middle of the basement, within easy view of the skinn basement window. Plugged into it was a portable hard drive.

_Definitely put there to try to goad me into landing on one of the mines outside. Nice try._

Hearing footsteps near the top of the stairwell—and, faintly, sirens in the distance- Gambit scurried over to the laptop and grabbed it just as Deadpool landed at the bottom of the stairwell behind him.

Gambit yanked the hard drive out, charged it, and threw it at Deadpool, who easily deflected it with one of his swords, sending the projectile to explode harmlessly on one of the basement walls. Deadpool yanked out his gun and pointed it at Gambit, but no sooner had he done so than Gambit charged the laptop, too.

"Shoot and I'll blow up the computer and everything in it," Gambit threatened.

"Oh come on, you can't bluff a bluffer," Deadpool sneered. "There's no way you're going to just destroy the information on that thing. There's way too much on there for you to have memorized all of it."

"Is there?" Gambit smirked. "Or maybe I have it all on a backup drive somewhere else."

"If you had it backed up, you wouldn't have done all this just to get it back again. I may be stupid, but I'm not crazy! …No wait, I think I got that backwards…"

"Maybe I just wanted to keep the info from getting into your employer's hands, hrmm?" Gambit said.

They both stood there for several seconds, neither of them moving, as the sound of sirens in the distance got louder and louder.

"…So what, you're just gonna take off running?" Deadpool said. "It won't change a thing. We'll just come after it again."

"I'm sure you will. But I'm more concerned about the here and now currently."

Deadpool stood there for a few more seconds before finally lowering his gun, cursing. "Gahhh! Fine. I'll just take it from you later. Hope you like _never sleeping ever_."

"Merci," Gambit said, bowing slightly before smashing the basement window—never taking his eyes off of Deadpool as he did so—and scrambling out of it.

Taking care to avoid the couple of mines the mercenaries had placed around said window, Gambit high-tailed it to the fence, leaping over it as the alternating blue-and-red lights from the police cars started to flash around the yard, their source coming from in front of the house.

Using his staff to pole-vault himself over the fence and into an adjoining backyard, Gambit finally removed the explosive kinetic energy he had temporarily shunted into his laptop, then took out his cell phone, quick-dialing a number as he continued to make his way out of the area as quickly and silently as possible.

After several rings, he finally got an answer from the other end.

*_Why are you calling here? It's late, you know I'm at the Mansion, and you're gonna get me in trouble. I know you've helped us in the past, but if the Prof knew I even had your number listed on my phone—*_

"Listen, cherie, this ain't exactly a casual house call… though I _did_ hear the good news," Gambit spoke softly into the cell phone, pausing briefly to vault over another fence. "Congratulations…."

* * *

"…Aaand I'm pretty sure you know the rest," Gambit smiled, pulling his laptop out from his trenchcoat and laying it on the table between them.

"Okay, so… I'm still not quite getting it," Rogue said. "If you got your laptop back… then why do you need _me_?"

"Well, it's like Deadpool said, I'm still in a bit 'a trouble. I can't go back to my apartment, and they're no doubt tracking us here as we speak. And yes, I was bluffing about having the data backed up, as I… acquired it recently. Good thing he didn't call me on it."

"Wait, how would they know you're _here_?"

"You're not the only one I called, cherie."

Rogue just sat there for a second, her eyes widening as everything clicked.

"You... you _son of a_…!" Rogue stammered, catching the attention of the few other patrons in the restaurant as she stood up out of her seat, practically yelling at Gambit. "This is just another of your games! I'm just a one-trick pony to you, ain't I? Just trick her into coming to places to absorb information, so that you can figure out who hired those goons and what they were after!"

"Rogue, calm down, you need to understand—"

"No, YOU need to understand something! People are not just tools that you can manipulate to do whatever you want! Now here I am, risking MY life, and I didn't even know it until a few seconds ago! And now this whole place is a ticking time-bomb because you actually phoned them and told them you're here!"

Turning to address everyone else staring at her in the restaurant, Rogue yelled out, "All 'a ya, you need to leave, NOW! This whole place is in danger—"

She was interrupted as two separate windows on opposite sides of the restaurant exploded in a shower of glass, Deadpool and Domino jumping through them, their guns trained on Rogue and Gambit.

"A bit late for warnings now," Domino smirked.

The people in the restaurant immediately began screaming and heading for the doors, but it didn't faze the two mercenaries. Deadpool had both of his guns trained on Gambit, while Domino had one of her pistols trained on Rogue—one of her arms hung at her side, some bandages around the wounds that had evidently been made by the crossbow bolts.

Gambit starting to reach for his laptop, but Deadpool fired his gun, the bullet landing in the table right in front of Gambit's hand. Getting the message, Gambit quickly backed off.

"Both of you, hands up, now!" Domino yelled angrily.

"Dramatic entrance, huh?" Gambit smirked.

"Hey, breaking glass is awesome!" Deadpool shot back.

"So, wonderful plan, _Remy_," Rogue whispered out of the side of her mouth. "Now they'll shoot us both in a public restaurant instead of just you in a deserted old house. Great."

"Give it time," Gambit whispered- his tone calm, but his expression seemed a little panicked, his eyes darting all around the restaurant, as if he was looking for something and failing to find it.

"Deadpool, get the laptop," Domino said.

"Finally!" Deadpool said, walking over to the table, his gun still trained on Gambit, as he retrieved the computer. "I was getting really freaking sick of all the stand-offs tonight."

"I don't know why the heck you called us to come here," Domino said, "But whatever traps you may have set for us, they failed because we didn't run into any. But thanks for making it easy. Deadpool, I've got Rogue. Kill the Cajun."

"But you've got the laptop!" Rogue said.

"Yeah, but your friend there really _ticked me off_," Domino said, "And I don't know what role you're playing in all of this, but you aren't leaving, either."

"Sorry 'bout all this," Deadpool said, "But my trigger finger is awfully itchy. It has a really bad rash, and I've tried all the prescribed ointments."

"Get down!" Gambit said suddenly, kicking the table up and at both of the mercenaries as he pushed Rogue down to the floor. Both Deadpool and Domino let loose with their guns, but the bullets ricocheted off the table. Domino's, however, ricocheted off one of the restaurant's beams and struck Gambit in the shoulder, who hissed slightly at the impact.

"Wow. A _table_. Whatever shall we do?" Deadpool smirked, taking out a sword and cutting the table flying at them in half as he did so.

"You'll freeze, is what," came a voice from the restaurant's doorway. A moment later, a beam of ice came from the same direction, encasing all of Domino but her head in the frozen substance.

Iceman walked into the restaurant, followed by Magma, Colossus, and Storm.

"Good thing most of this place is plastic and metal," Magma smirked, turning into her flame form. "That way I don't have to worry about doing _this._"

She sent out a fireball at Deadpool, who nimbly dodged it and shot at Magma. Colossus stepped in front of her, the bullets pinging harmlessly off his steel skin. As soon as Deadpool landed again, Storm shot out a lightning bolt, directly striking Deadpool and sending him howling out the window he had come in through.

"Man, am I glad to see you guys!" Rogue said, getting up and dusting off her jeans.

"You're late," Gambit said good-naturedly as he stood up and walked casually over to the other X-Men.

"We had a bit of a discussion first," Colossus said, crossing his arms over his chest, "Trying to decide if your call was a trap or not."

"You called THEM, too?" Rogue asked.

"Indeed I did," Gambit said, smiling and winking back at her. "After you had already left, of course. I didn't feel like explaining myself to everyone, after all."

"S-so THIS was th-the 'trap'…" Domino muttered to herself, her teeth chattering as she cursed.

"So what IS going on, Rogue?" Storm asked.

"Time to find out," Rogue said, walking up to Domino and touching the mercenary's face with her gloveless hand.

A few seconds later, Rogue walked towards the others, mentally sorting through the memories as Domino's head hung limp in her rapidly-melting ice encasement, unconscious.

"Huh. So they were hired by Mystique. I would've expected Magneto."

"Mystique, eh?" Gambit said, rubbing his chin. "Interestin'. Why didn't she just send some of her Brotherhood flunkies after me? I mean, I get why she didn't send Toad, but Surge? The Scarlet Witch? I would've had more trouble with them than these two."

"Rogue?" Storm asked, getting impatient.

Rogue sighed. "Gambit called me on the cell phone while Jamie's party was still going on. He wanted to meet me here, but wouldn't tell me why. I came, and discovered he led me here to use me—_again_—to absorb information about why Domino and Deadpool were after his laptop."

"Well, that's a bit of a biased summary," Gambit said, a little indignant. "I also just wanted to see you again, cherie."

Rogue glared daggers at Gambit, who merely dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Rogue, I understand Gambit has helped us a few times in the past, but you should know by now that he's not completely trustworthy," Storm said sternly. "I expected better from you."

"Y'know…" Rogue said, her gaze drifting down to the floor for a moment before turning back to Gambit with a mischevious smile on her face. "…You're right."

Reaching out quickly, Rogue attempted to grab Gambit's face with her gloveless hand. Instinctively Gambit reached out to block the motion with his hand, but his gloves were fingerless, so the end result was the same.

As Gambit collapsed to the floor unconscious, Rogue took a moment to sort through the additional memories she had absorbed. "…Oh, man…"

"What? What is it?" Magma asked.

"I know you guys aren't gonna want to hear this, but I think we should take Gambit—and his laptop—with us."

"Why?" Iceman said, quirking an icy eyebrow. "I say we just either turn him in to the police, or if you guys are feeling generous, just dumping him back at his apartment."

"The details are a bit confusing right now as I'm trying to make sense of two separate memories, but I'm pretty sure Gambit knows where we can find someone who, in turn, knows where Magneto is."

"That is good enough information for me," Colossus said, reaching over and slinging Gambit over his shoulder.

"But what about—" Magma said, turning back to Domino—only to see a partially melted hollow bit of ice in her place. "-Wait, where'd she go? She was unconscious!"

"Aw, man," Iceman said, slapping his forehead. "Deadpool must've snuck in and grabbed her while we were preoccupied with Gambit."

"Right behind our _backs_?" Magma asked.

"He is a mercenary, and skilled at what he does," Colossus replied, grimacing. "You would be surprised how silent someone can be. Back when we were both Acolytes, Gambit stole quite a few things of mine, and only once did I catch him. We… I should have been paying more attention."

"Regardless, it doesn't matter anymore," Storm says. "We have the laptop, and they aren't going to dare come after all of us, especially after what happened last time. Gambit has the information we need. I'll stay here and try to work things out with the restaurant manager, assuming he's still hiding somewhere—the rest of you go. I'll catch up."

As they followed Magma and Colossus out, Iceman said to Rogue, "Hey, y'know, you've got a lotta valuable info in your head right now. You might want to write it down somewhere before your powers wear off and you forget it."

"That ain't exactly how my powers work," Rogue said, "I just need to focus on something specific I absorbed and then it's committed to MY memory, not just theirs. And I'll explain it more on the way home, but trust me… there's _no way_ I'm gonna forget _this_."

The End


End file.
